Common Norway Spruce (Picea abies) problems include spider mite, Eastern Spruce gall adelgid, CooleyÂs Spruce gall adelgid, bagworms, budworm, Spruce needle miner, Pine needle scale, sawfly larvae, various borers, Cytospora canker, needle casts, various rust diseases. Picea abies does well in most soils, but does not like continually wet soil.

Eastern Red Cedars (Juniperus virginiana) generally overcomes most problems but common problems include bagworms, Juniper scale, mites, twig blights, cedar-apple rust, cedar-hawthorn rust, and cedar-quince rust. If you have apple or crabapple trees, the rusts diseases can be a real problem. Juniperus virginiana does well in most soils, but does not like continually wet soil.

Bagworms can be very serious with Leyland Cypress (x Cupressocyparis leylandii, x Cuprocyparis leylandii, or whatever they eventually decide upon). Other common problems include multiple canker and fungus diseases. This tree has been hit really hard in some areas partly because it is so overplanted. Leyland Cypress tolerates a large range of soil types, but definitely does better in well drained soil.

What made you narrow it down to these three? There are others that I would consider.

Have you thought about planting multiple types? Have you thought about planting in drifts or some other pattern than a straight line? If you plant them in a line and loose one, it can look pretty weird/ugly.

Well....if you just look around you out in the countryside, you can tell which one is the toughest around here ;-). You can't go far in TN without seeing tons of red cedar trees!

A local arborist also recommended Cryptomeria Yoshina as being a good one.

In case you are looking it up, it's Cryptomeria japonica ÂYoshino (ÂYoshino Japanese Cedar). They are really beautiful trees!

Another important question is how much room there is for the trees. Be sure you leave plenty of room for these trees to grow because all of them can get pretty big.

How about Cherry Laurel (Prunus caroliniana)?

They are fast growing, evergeen, have a tendancies to want to be large shrubby trees to 25 ft - 40 ft. They have white flowers in the spring and black berries that attract birds.

They like our acid, clay soil.

Q

Dang, so the leyland cypress is pretty much disease prone to start with? I was really leaning towards them as i like the way they look and grow fast.So i need to eliminate them from the list?
In my back feild there are TONS of small cedars popping up, im thinking of just transplanting some up to the yard, any recommendations on transplanting so they will survive and grow fast?

From what I've seen the Leyland cypress does grow well here in TN. My parents have a row of them planted and haven't had any problems with them. I read somewhere that they take many of the nutrients from the soil so you may not be able to plant other plants around them with any great success. Then again I might be wrong! Of course the cedars are everywhere.

So far as the Leylands go, I'd prefer Thuja 'Green Giant'. These are much more pest and disease resistant and somewhat similar to Leylands but with many advantages. I think you will find that many of the better nurseries have started leaning away from Leylands, and I would be willing to bet that if you go to the conifer forum and search around, you'll find many posts that recommend other types of trees as substitutes for Leylands. If you are interested in a particular look or possibly a slightly slower growing type, there are many other cultivars of Thujas derived from the 'Green Giant' cultivar.

Cryptomerias are becoming quite popular, and with good reason.

Thanks for telling me about the thuja green giant, i did some reading on them and i think thats what i am going to get being as they are disease and pest resistant much more than the leyland, now, i was at lowe's yesterday and they had 'green giant arborvitae', would that be the same as the thuja green giant?

Not unless they were mismarked (highly possible at the big box places). If you live around Knoxville, I can hook you up with a good source. If not, maybe someone from your area will know of a good place to buy them.

BTW, if you go with Green Giant Thujas, don't waste money buying big ones. If you get some in 1 gallon pots (healthy and not rootbound) and some others in 5 or 10 gallon pots and plant them in the same soil at the same time, the 1 gallon plants will catch up to the larger ones in just a few years. This happens to some degree with most types of shrubs and trees, but is especially noticeable with the faster growing types like Leyland Cypress and Giant Green Thujas.

Thanks, one more thing, what about white pines, will they work in my conditions and do they grow fast? I like them also..
thanks

See the "Damaging Agents" section of the US Forest Service's fact sheet attached below. It's about 2/3 down the page.

Trees that are stressed due to drought, physical damage, or other reasons are much more likely to be targeted by pests/diseases. I've seen a number of larger Pinus strobus die this year. Next year will likely bring another batch, even if there is no drought, because of the stress from this year. Pinus strobus does best in moist well driaining soils and is not as forgiving as some other choices. These trees are not as drought resistant as many other conifers.

Here is a link that might be useful: USDA Forest Service White Pine Fact Sheet

If you really want to research what types of trees would be best, check out Michael Dirr's book, Manual of Woody Landscape Plants. If I had to choose only one tree book, that would probably be the one I would pick. It should be available at any decent size bookstore or library. It's a VERY popular book and has a lot of info on common and fairly uncommon woody plants. Pretty much any hardy tree, shrub, or vine the average person would ever think of is discussed in detail.

Here is a link that might be useful: Manual of Woody Landscape Plants

Man, now im even more sad about the leyland cypress being so bad,, i went to lowes and home depot and both have 3 foot tall leylands for 9.98 each..Thats a good deal for a 3 foot tall tree, but i would hate to buy and plant them only to have them die..

Leylands are very pretty....until they die. But just drive around town occasionally. If you keep an eye out, you'll often see rows of attractive evergreens -- with several dead ones throughout the row, spoiling the look. Those are likely to be rows of Leylands!

anyone know where to buy decent sized thuja green giants cheap around here? (middle TN.)